The budget proposal to allocate additional funding of Rs 500 Crore to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) this year is going to further improve the availability of skilled workforce for the industry. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech that NSDC is on course to achieve its mandate of creation of 15 Crore skilled workforce two years ahead of its target deadline of 2022.

Education sector today got a 24 per cent hike in budgetary allocation for the next fiscal at Rs. 52,057 Crore to take forward ambitious programmes like universalizing secondary education and increasing enrollment ratio in higher education. Finance Minister, while presenting the Budget, also said that a revised Centrally Sponsored Scheme "Vocationalisation of Secondary Education" will be implemented from 2011-12 to improve the employability of our youth.

In a bid to promote greater educational activities among minorities, Government today proposed a whopping 69 percent increase in the allocation of funds for Maulana Azad Educational Foundation (MAEF), which functions under the Ministry of Minority Affairs. The foundation, which was granted Rs. 125 Crore in 2010-11, has got Rs. 200 Crore this time.

On the sidelines Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Sainik School at Kazhakuttom, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said that the percentage of women in armed forces will increase in phases and women will be employed only in non-combat jobs. He also said that his ministry has processed request to states for more Sainik schools and Centre has also provided Rs.44 crore in budgetary support to all 24 Sainik Schools this year.

To overcome shortage in small business sector like restaurants, grocery shops, textiles etc. Malaysia will be recruiter 45,000 foreign workers and bulk of the hiring is expected from India. Malaysian Associated Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MAICCI) had applied to Prime Minister and HR Ministry to approve the recruitment of 90,000 foreign workers, but the government agreed for only 45,000, as told by Dr S. Subramaniam Deputy President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).

Campus placement session at Tihar Jail, Delhi secured the future of atleast 14 potential candidates. While rest of the candidates hope to make the cut in the next couple of days. 46 inmates were selected for interview based on 3 factors: impeccable conduct inside the jail; expected release date would be in the coming year; and keenness to rehabilitate and lead a new life. Inside jail inmates were motivated by officials and NGOs to study. Agarwal Packers and Movers picked up seven inmates, Vedanta Foundation and Good House Keeping recruited two each, JRA & Associates and ASP Sealing products made one each.

Now agriculture business professionals are also in demand. Top hiring firms such as Olam International, Yes Bank, Axis Bank , Future’s Group, Pfizer and ICICI have lined up National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur and Institute of Agri-Business Management (IABM), Bikaner to hire professionals. They are offering attractive packages to lure graduates. The compensation level, at NIAM has gone up by 30% as compared with last year when the highest offering was Rs 8.44 lakh per annum.

Big companies are making plans to hire arts and commerce graduates as management talent is becoming too expensive. Essar Group, most popular recruiter, has decided to experiment with students from general stream colleges and groom them with on-the-job training. It has also tied up with IIM Ahmedabad to create a 16-month management programme for the new hires. FMCG major Dabur too is planning to cut recruitment from B-schools by 50% for next year. Top B-school recruiter Deloitte is also in the list. As a result of this move, leading undergraduate colleges claim to have seen several first-timers visit their campuses.

Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is trimming the workforce in spite of an increase in the net profits. According to Public Enterprises Survey, the number of employees in CPSEs has come down to 14.19 lakh in 2009-10 from 15.34 lakh in 2008-09, when in 217 state-owned units’ net profits increased by 10.40 per cent. Despite all this, salaries and wages in all CPSEs have gone up by 9.41 per cent. Moreover, as on March 31, 2010, number of CPSEs have increased to 249 from 246 in 2008-09.

Considering vacuum of eligible professors, Maharashtra government has increased the retirement age for college teachers from 58 to 62 years in accordance with University rants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) guidelines. The decision also involves a UGC grant of 1600 crore which should help in filling up 18,000 vacancy of professors and 1,700 of principals in various colleges.

In response to a tender floated by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) regarding training of over 6,000 station house officers (SHOs) posted in police stations across the country, top B-schools, including at least two IIMs and two foreign universities, and some MNCs are among the 60 organizations that have made a pitch for the unique scheme. Out of the 60 that applied, 27 organizations have been short-listed but a final decision on who will finally get to train the police officers is expected by mid-March.

The students of 353 primary schools in Himachal Pradesh, which are to closed down from the next academic session beginning in April, due to attendance of less than 10 students for the last couple of years will now get a special hardship allowance of Rs 600 per annum as compensation from the government for walking to the nearest school. The aid will be given to students at the end of the academic session as part of a unique feature introduced by any state as part of the implementation of the Right to Education Act.

One-third of teaching posts in top technical and management educational institutions, funded by the human resource development (HRD) ministry, is lying vacant. Giving this information in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state in the HRD D Purandeswari, said, out of 12,114 sanctioned posts for institutions like IITs, IIMs, IIESR, etc., 4,083 are lying vacant.

To deal with the shortage of skilled workers, plastics’ composite industry is preparing to train fresh graduates through professional business schools. FRP Institute, representative body of industry, has tied-up with Mumbai-based University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT) to launch diploma and certificate courses in reinforced plastics composites and is also looking for more such tie-ups. Rapid growth in transportation requires innovative products for replacing steel and other metals for transport and marine applications.

There are expectations that in the run-up budget to be presented on February 28, the Finance Minister may increase the income tax exemption limit from the existing Rs 1.6 lakh per annum for men and Rs 1.9 lakh for women. During question hour in Rajya Sabha, he assured to do something in order to increase the purchasing power of consumers. Food inflation, which hurts the common man most, is still ruling in the double digits despite some moderation in the recent weeks.

Kanpur’s ` 400 crores Gutka industry employing 17,000 workers is expected to be severely hit by the ban on sale of tobacco in ‘plastic bags’, effective from 1st March. S S Paliwal, an owner of packaging unit, said "we need to cut few jobs as there will be no gutka packaging. So, we can't afford to give them their salaries". There are discussions of packaging tobacco products in aluminum foil but it may increase the cost of industry by 40%.

Department of Public Enterprises has proposed Department of Personnel and training to allow CEOs of private firms to join PSU Boards as independent directors. Presently only retired CEOS are free to join the Boards of state owned companies but since there is no retirement age in private sector, the PSUs are unable to take their advantage. As per the SEBI guidelines and a listing requirement, a company should have on its board 50 per cent representation by independent directors, if it has an Executive Chairman.

In what reflects a bounce-back in economic sentiments, India Inc is going all-out to recruit from Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) this season. At IIM-C the number of offers made this year has increased by 75% from last year, whereas for IIM-K the number of offers has rose by 30% this year.

Britain is preparing to let in some 20,000 skilled Indian workers every year, a media report said. The Indian migrants, most of them skilled information technology (IT) professionals, are to be allowed into the UK every year under the multi-billion-pound European Union-India Free Trade Agreement, which is being negotiated in the corridors of Belgian capital Brussels, the 'Sunday Express' reported.

A student of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, has been offered a salary of Rs 32 lakh per annum as against 28 lakh per annum, the highest ever for the institute here. An investment bank has made this offer to a student of 2009-11 batch, with a posting in India. Last year, the highest offer was Rs 28 lakh per annum.

Wage boards headed by Justice G.R. Majithia have recommended a hike in the salary of journalists and other newspaper agencies employees considering various aspects of media management such as revenue from the advertisement, circulation, annual growth rate, labour cost and financial strength. Cabinet’s approval on the same is expected by end of March. If approved, the new wage structure will take effect from July 1, 2011.

Gujarat has been allotted by Union Home Ministry, a fixed quota of 1700 youths for recruitment of constables through Staff Selection Commission (SSC). Moreover, 274 constables, besides the fixed allotment, including women will be recruited for postings in various paramilitary forces in Kutch district. These recruitments will be made for Border Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Assam Rifles. This decision is inspired from the increase in the number of applicants for various posts filled through SSC

With fading craze for MNC jobs, B-school students are veering towards domestic recruiters this placement season, as Indian companies acquire the professional edge and go global. The recession-proof nature of the Indian economy, which is expected to expand by 8.6% this fiscal compared with 8% last year, is another draw for students this placement season.

According to a survey by Pricewatercoopers (PWC), smaller cities are attracting more than 50% of IT and ITes owing mainly to availability of low-cost skilled resources, followed by real estate, low attrition, presence of special economic zones, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Large cities are witnessing severe pressure on infrastructure which raises the cost of operation for IT and ITes companies and they also face high attrition rates. The survey suggested that there is pull for adopting cloud computing in India and many companies are on their way to introduce cloud computing services within next 12 months.

The Malaysian government is in the process of setting up a panel to look into a proposal for a single minimum wage for both local and foreign workers, a move which will greatly benefit the thousands of Indian workers employed in the country. Malaysian Human Resources Minister Datuk S Subramaniam said that the minimum wage policy, when enforced, would cover all employees, both locals and legal foreign workers.

The ministry of rural development has demanded a nearly 60% increase in the allocation for its marquee job guarantee scheme in the forthcoming Union budget for fiscal year 2011-12. It has sought an allocation of around Rs. 64,000 Crore, up from Rs. 41,100 Crore, for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) which currently provides employment to 41 million households, generating 1.45 billion person days of employment, a ministry official said.

India’s top B-schools are anticipating 2011 to be the best campus placement year as the potential employers are not only expected to hire more but also pay more relative to last year. At IIM-Ahmadabad, recruiters are offering upto five times higher salary than last year. Multinationals are expanding and now there is much more work for management consultants, said Atul Khosla, India head of Oliver Wyman.

As most of the employers are failing to list notify jobs openings in exchanges, the Labour Ministry may ask all the departments to incorporate possible job creations in a detailed project report (DPR). It will help in strengthening employment services. This initiative is a key component of Ministry's strategic plan for the next five years which also calls for establishment of a National Employment Promotion Council. This will also help the help the government in attaining employment growth of atleast 2.5% as it promised in the “Annual report to people on employment”. The Ministry also proposes to bring amendments in the Employment Exchange Compulsory Notification of Vacancy Act which will increase penalty on employers failing to notify vacancies in employment exchanges.

According to various studies, public sector banks will have around 3,40,000 retirements and to compensate for this they will require 5,00,000 to 7,00,000 employees. Keeping the shortfall in mind, some banks have already started using ‘fast-track promotion’ policy for the well deserving employees. In Union Bank of India such fast track promotion channel can promote a scale-1 employee to scale-5 in 11 years and it has already promoted 548 employees in last 4 years using the shorter route. But for this an employee must clear written tests, group discussions and personal interviews. This process is expected to bring down the average age at the general manager level from 50 years to 40 years, said the general manager of Bank of Baroda.

The Ministry of Labour has proposed to amend the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Funds Act, 1952 to ensure that no industry in organized sector, including BPOs and KPOs are excluded. It has recommended to remove the existing schedule of 186 industries, and rather to have a list of those industries that are exempted from this provision. Companies avoid making PF payments because it makes the compensation packages look more lucrative.

Career opportunities for mathematicians are increasing but there is an all over shortage of graduates in this field, said Vice-Chancellor of Karnatak University, Dharwad (KUD), H.B. Walikar. With the application of mathematics in different fields and with the maturing of Indian Industry, there is a large demand for people with string analytical skills. This gives them an edge over computer graduates. Technical education institutes are struggling for good mathematics teachers and so are offering them pay packages at par with the engineering students. There are also opportunities of teaching jobs abroad for such meritorious students.

The forthcoming budget is unlikely to propose a steep hike in allocation of funds for NREGA, government's flagship rural welfare scheme, despite a sharp increase in the wage rates under it. The finance ministry is likely to allocate only Rs 42,000-45,000 Cr. for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a government official said. The minimum wages under the MGNREGA have risen between 17% and 30% from January this year, which increased the probability of rise in demand for jobs if the market wage rate for unskilled manual work is lower in the rural areas.

Reports by leading job portals Monster.com and Naukri.com predicts bullish hiring trend for 2011. Start of the year has been on a positive trend, with the month of January marking tremendous improvement in job opportunities across all the sectors. Monster’s employment index for Jan climbed to 113 observing a growth of 27% and Naukri’s Job Speak index went up to 969 in Jan from 808 last year. According to Monster’s report, travel and tourism sector saw 56% growth in Jan 2011 compared to Jan 2010 while according to Naukri’s report all top industrial sectors saw positive monthly growth.

Now, shareholders of the unlisted companies, with less profit or no profit, can decide on the salary of CEO’s. Schedule XIII (rules) of Companies Act, 1956 has been amended and such companies are no longer required to obtain government approval for fixing CEO’s salary. Presently the system is such that Remuneration Committee of a company has to pass a resolution and if the remuneration exceeds certain limit it has to seek approval of Ministry of Corporate affairs.

The government is set to launch its most comprehensive survey on the country’s job scenario, profiling all the 600 plus districts of the country and 1.2 billion citizens, starting April this year. Till now, such surveys were being conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization every five years. The survey will be conducted by the Labour Bureau and will start on April 1 to capture data on 2010-11. Its report is expected to be compiled over the next six to eight months.

National Innovation Council (NIC) has announced its plans of generating large-scale employment for the poor, especially in rural areas of the country in the next 10 years. The council is in the process of selecting domain experts and stakeholders to prepare a roadmap for the project. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved the establishment of the council with a mandate to prepare a roadmap for the “Decade of Innovation (2010-20)” by evolving a model of innovation, focusing on inclusive growth and creating an appropriate ecosystem.

ET study reveals that in 2009-10 CEOs of top companies earned 68 times the average pay in their companies. It seems that India is following US where top executives earn 250 times the average worker and Europe, 115 times, in terms of social inequality. Though some Indian CEOs and MDs saw a decline in their salary due to economic slowdown but the absolute amount is still high. However, there are also companies where the gap between CEOs salary and an average employee salary is modest such as Infosys, where the ratio is just 9 times and Wipro, 5 times. The inequality was least in infrastructure firm IDFC with the salary gap ratio of 3times. Out of 150 firms studied by ET, CEOs in 40 firms earned more than 100 times the average employee pay including textile, pharma, cement, construction sectors.

The Airlines sector is no more in the recovery mode but is rather expanding. There are expectations that salaries in this sector may rise by 25-30% as it is trying to restore salaries to 2008 levels. Ancillary airlines businesses are also likely to create new job opportunities relating to maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft. This year industry is expected to exhibit a growth of 20% in carrying capacity. According to government’s estimates, over the next 7 to 8 years every carrier will add 30-40 aircrafts per year, thereby generating opportunities for cabin crews.

Following the recommendations of second pay revision committee, Government may allow newly listed public sector companies to offer Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) to their top performing senior and middle level executives, in order to retain talent. 10-20% of the performance related pay may be paid as ESOPs. In the official meeting to discuss the same, UD Choubey, director general of SCOPE has suggested that companies can also purchase shares for employees with a lock-in period of 3 years and can pass on the incremental benefit to employees. The existing guidelines, though allow companies to pay upto 50% of the performance related pay as ESOPs but there has been no movement yet.

An upsurge of new firms in e-commerce and online retail segments is driving up hiring trend which is expected to increase by 50% in 2011 across both metro and non-metro locations. Growth estimates suggest that new industries may shoot revenues of e-commerce market to `55,000crore in 2011. So, they are hunting for high performing professional to drive this boom.

Top executives of India from 10 big companies including IDBI Bank, Vedanta Group, Sterlite Foundation, Agarwal Packers, Jindal Steel and Flex shoes will be carrying campus selection in Tihar Jail for the first time on Feb 5. They have planned to pick 50 prisoners who will be employed in their business houses. All of them are highly qualified, educated from IGNOU. They will receive professional training during their term in Jail. The motive behind this drive is to help prisoners get a job with dignity and will also prevent them from committing crime in future.

While speaking at a function to mark the fifth anniversary of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which guarantees 100 days of employment in every financial year to any rural household, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government would create a biometric database of all workers under NREG. A new law for social audit will be introduced to ensure that benefits of the scheme reached the people. This will ensure that every action under the scheme is recorded digitally, right from the demand for work to payment of wages.

B-Schools have planned to alter the placement arrangement by segregating fringe benefits from the core salary. The new placement standards of IIM Ahmadabad, to be implemented from February, exclude performance linked compensation such as variable pay, bonuses, employee stock options, club memberships etc. while reporting final salary. It may also appoint an auditor to access packages on offer and compare domestic and international packages using purchasing power parity. According to Sunil Goel of GlobalHunt, this may bring down the salary by upto 40%.

According to the TeamLease Employment Outlook Report for January - March 2010 quarter, business prospects had improved by 2% to 73% and also gave a boost to employment outlook which moved up by 1% to 69%. Notable GDP growth in the last two quarters and good Q3 numbers by companies is expected to have a positive impact on the hiring outlook for the coming quarters. The report also says that companies may focus more on Tier II cities where hiring scenario has already improved by 2%. Hiring prospects in metros increased only by 1% while in rural areas they were stagnant. The report also said that hiring outlook is more positive for entry level positions compared to mid-level positions.